Sixty suspected Taleban militants and five Afghan security personnel have died in a major clash in the south, a top Afghan military commander says. The fighting took place in Uruzgan province late on Tuesday, Gen Rahmatullah Raufi told reporters. The US military in Afghanistan has confirmed the incident, but says only 24 militants have been killed. Separately, a UK spokesman says a British aircraft has been involved in an incident in Helmand province. No details are available but reports say an aircraft is on fire in the airstrip at the provincial capital, Lashkargah. A BBC correspondent says he can see a huge plume of black smoke from the site. US-led coalition forces and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were involved in the fighting in Uruzgan which took place near the provincial capital Tirin Kot. Officials say the clash began when a joint ANA and coalition patrol came under attack. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Palestinian militant group Hamas has denounced the US president's support for Israeli plans to unilaterally redraw its borders if peace talks fail. A Hamas spokesman said it would spell the end for the Palestinian cause. George W Bush described Israel's plan as "bold" after talks with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, but urged him to pursue direct talks with the Palestinians. Hamas, branded a terror group by the US, Israel, and the EU, won elections in January and formed a government. Mr Olmert is proposing the withdrawal of tens of thousands of Israelis from isolated settlements in the West Bank while, at the same time, consolidating other settlements housing hundreds of thousands of others. Palestinians see the Israeli plan as a land grab of territory captured by Israel in 1967 and have condemned it. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5011912.stm

Tariq Aziz, once a close member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, testified for the defense in Saddam Hussein's trial, saying the regime had to strike back with a crackdown on a Shiite town after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former Iraqi leader.The 70-year-old Aziz, a former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, took the stand wearing checkered pajamas and looking pale. Aziz, who is in U.S. custody, has complained of health problems and his family has been pressing for him to be released temporarily for medical treatment.Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman opened the session with a sharp warning to the defense lawyers and the eight defendants that he would not allow insults to the court. In the previous session, Abdel-Rahman threw out a defense attorney when she tried to speak after he warned he not to....http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/24/ap/world/mainD8HQ5O8O0.shtml

Turkish firefighters have been tackling a huge fire that engulfed the cargo area of Istanbul's Ataturk International airport. Three people are reported to have been injured in the blaze, which officials believe was caused by a short circuit. They say the fire is now under control - although smoke is still rising from the building. There had been concerns that flames could spread to the main terminals, but flights are now being allowed to land. Ataturk airport, about 16km (10 miles) from central Istanbul, is the main destination for domestic and international flights - and serves as a hub for tourism in Turkey. The fire broke out at about 1230 GMT and quickly erupted into an inferno of flames and plumes of smoke...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5012706.stm

The United States' reported use of secret CIA-run prisons for terrorism suspects amounts to a policy of "disappearances", human rights watchdog Amnesty International said today in its annual report.In a sometimes scathing assessment of Washington's rights record, the London-based group also raised serious concerns about detainees held without trial in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.Washington had failed to bring to account those potentially guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity, it added. Britain also faced condemnation, with Amnesty saying the government had "continued to erode fundamental human rights" through new anti-terrorism laws and the possible use of evidence obtained through the torture of suspects in other countries.The 238-page report for 2005 carries a lengthy catalogue of abuses in dozens of countries, with some of the most-criticised including China, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Russia....http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1781260,00.html

A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accused a disbarred attorney of defrauding thousands of clients out of $13.5 million in settlement money from lawsuits claiming they were made ill by exposure to asbestos. Louis S. Robles, 58, was charged with 41 counts of mail fraud. Robles, who was disbarred in 2003 after an investigation by the Florida Bar into his financial practices, surrendered to federal authorities on Monday. The indictment alleged Robles took money from his asbestos clients' trust fund accounts and used it to pay for personal real estate, including a 9,000-square-foot waterfront mansion on Key Biscayne, apartments in New York and Los Angeles and a condominium in Telluride, Colo. It also accused him of using settlement money to invest in movie production and a waste management firm, and to pay his ex-wife's alimony....http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5840376,00.html